This invention relates to a clamping device for blade assemblies mounted on cutting tools and in particular for blade assemblies used on rotary cutting tools.
A blade and its associated cartridge in a rotary-type cutting tool are exposed to very large radially outward directed forces as the cutting tool performs the cutting operation on a workpiece. To withstand these large forces, the clamping device for blade cartridge must have large holding power to keep the blade in a fixed cutting position.
The deficiency of prior art clamping devices for rotary cutting tool blade assemblies is that their range of adjustability is very limited. Furthermore most prior art clamping devices are quite complicated in design making them expensive to manufacture and making it difficult to replace the blade assemblies. As will be understood in reading the specification and viewing the attached patent drawings, this invention overcomes prior art deficiencies by providing a clamping device that can be secured in place anywhere along a radial track that extends the entire length of the rotary cutting tool cylindrical body surface. Furthermore this invention has several different features that provides a number of alternatives to increase the holding power of the clamping device as required.